Plant power: why demand for traditional herbal remedies is booming

Just a handful of businesses have boomed through lockdown – Netflix, Joe Wicks, your local bike shop, online sex toys. Medicinal herbs have also emerged even stronger and healthier. Between January and May, UK online searches for herbs associated with building immunity or fighting flu – andrographis, for example – rose by 200 per cent over the same months last year.

For Sebastian Pole, master herbsmith and co-founder of Pukka Herbs, lockdown has been busier than ever – meeting this surge while simultaneously moving 130 staff out of Pukka’s head office to work from home. On top of this, there’s his private practice – Pole has been treating his own patients for 22 years and the pandemic has generated a stream of requests for herbal remedies to boost immunity, reduce anxiety and ward off insomnia. Working from his home, a converted cowshed in rural Somerset that he shares with his musician wife Suzie, Pole’s prescriptions are created in his dispensary and often grown in his stunning two-acre garden, which teems with organic herbs.

“It has been intense,” says Pole. “I’ve been stretched to keep up.” His hope is that recent events might bring an end to the UK habit of viewing “modern biomedicine” in one corner (gleaming white and sterilised) and “traditional plant-based medicine” in another (alongside a handful of lentils and a pair of old sandals). “In fact, the whole history of human medicine is plant-based and most of the world is still dependent on traditional medicine today,” he says. There’s also a constant intertwining of the two, even in the West – the perennial meadowsweet was employed to create the first aspirins, foxglove ­extract is used in heart drugs, yew ­needles in certain chemotherapies.

“It’s not ‘plants versus medicine’,” says Pole. “Of course, we should have both. Modern medicine is phenomenal but it doesn’t have all the answers – which we’re more aware of than ever right now – and it hasn’t been great at building us up. Drugs can force your body to do something – which you often need, like an emergency full stop. Herbs help your body do what it’s trying to do anyway. They’re micro-interventions to help optimise your health or potential – ‘top-up tonics’, if you like.”

This love affair with herbs began more than 30 years ago when Pole was 18, travelling across India on a gap year. In the Himalayas, he was struck by a stomach bug and consulted a herbalist – often the first port of call in those ­isolated communities where a doctor could be a three-day walk away.

The herbalist prescribed a powdered mixture of liquorice, amla (also known as Indian gooseberry) and a marsh­mallow-type plant – and it worked. Pole recovered fast and was astonished. “I felt a bit cheated, to be honest,” he says. “How could herbs be so effective yet I’d never even heard of this? I’d had a good education so why didn’t I know about this stuff? Why didn’t my parents? Why didn’t we all know?”

So Pole resolved to learn as much as he could. First, he studied Indian religion and Hindi at SOAS, then immersed himself in the study of herbalism, Chinese medicine and ayurvedic medicine. To Pole, the power of plants makes perfect sense. “Plants develop compounds in the wild to protect themselves from infections and boost their energy and fertility,” he explains. “So when we eat them, because of ­co-evolution, they do that to us as well – and they taste great too!”

In 1998, Pole set up in private practice, and three years later, he spied an ad in a Bristol magazine placed by Tim Westwell, a former computer salesman, looking for creative business ideas related to herbalism. Pole was the only person to respond, and Pukka Tea was born. “We had £4,000, my kitchen and Tim’s spare room,” says Pole. “I made up three blends, we set up a stand and talked to people.”

At that time, he recalls, herbal tea had a reputation for looking and smelling good but tasting thin. “It was all fruit teas. No way! That wasn’t herbalism.”

Pukka has also allowed Pole to pursue his passion for organic farming – everything at Pukka is certified organic, Fair for Life and sustainably sourced from the places where a herb grows best – ginger from India, cinnamon from Vietnam, camomile from Egypt. In all, their supplies come from about 30 countries – and they export their finished products to 30 countries.

Pole believes we should aim to make herbs one or two per cent of our daily intake, either in cooking, as a tea or a supplement. Right now he is dosing up on anything traditionally used to boost immunity – elderberry is one example. “It’s one of Europe’s best protectors for winter coughs and colds, but it’s also been shown to interrupt how a virus replicates,” he says, “though of course it’s not specific to Covid, as that’s new. An elderberry tea or syrup will give your immune system a boost.”

Medicinal mushrooms such as shiitake or reishi are another option. “They’re rich in beta-glucans which the body sees as an invader,” says Pole. “When you eat them, it alerts the immune system and wakes it up.”

Pole also recommends herbs and other foods that protect our inflammatory system, since Covid-19 seems to have poorer outcomes for people living with chronic inflammation, common in conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. “Turmeric, ginger, garlic, thyme all have strong anti-inflammatory properties,” he says, “as well as the colourful foods like carrots and beetroot.”

Andrographis is another contender, traditionally used to promote the production of antibodies and reduce severity of infection. Pukka is funding a small clinical trial in Southampton, with 20 GP surgeries prescribing andrographis to soothe symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections. (It tastes horrible, nicknamed “the king of bitter”, so you won’t find it in teas, only as a capsule.)

In the past few months, Pole has been dispatching remedies using all of the above, for his patients, his elderly mother, his adult son in Bristol, for his wife and himself. He has also turned to some of the more calming herbs in his garden. “Lemon balm and camomile are really good for ­dialling down the nervous system,” he says, “and I’ve got valerian – dig it up, wash the root, dry it, cut it and you’ve got a strong sedative.”

Gardening has got Pole through lockdown. His patch is beautiful, stretching down to a brook. “I’ve been out there every day and it has preserved my sanity. I also try not to watch the news too much, or buy into the immediacy. These are turbulent, upsetting times and I’d rather focus on the things I can control.

“The fact that we’re employing lots of people around the world to grow our herbs when there’s an economic crisis feels good in itself – and that every day, we’re serving millions of cups of tea, gently nudging people in the right direction.”

How to make your own – Sebastian Pole’s tea recipes to boost immunity

Lemon and ginger with manuka honey​

Ingredients

• 10g fresh ginger root, grated
• 4g elderflower
• 1g turmeric root powder
• Lemon juice
• Manuka honey

Method

Place the grated ginger in a pot with the elderflower and turmeric and add 500ml/18fl oz of boiled filtered water. Steep for five to 10 minutes, then strain and pour. Add a twist of lemon and a teaspoon of honey to each cup. 


Elderberry and echinacea

Ingredients

• 2g echinacea root
• 2g elderberry
• 2g rosehip
• 2g peppermint leaf
• 1g aniseed
• 1g ginger root powder
• 1g liquorice root
• 1 drop orange essential oil

Method

Put all the ingredients (except the orange essential oil) in a pot. Add 500ml/18fl oz of freshly boiled filtered water. Leave for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain. Add one drop of orange essential oil to each cup.